


and all things amplified

by AwayLaughing



Category: Naruto
Genre: Hot Weather, Innuendo, M/M, Not Canon Compliant
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-30
Updated: 2017-09-30
Packaged: 2019-01-07 09:49:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12230439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwayLaughing/pseuds/AwayLaughing
Summary: It's July and things in Konoha are running hot - including Shikamaru's temper. When Kakashi springs a suprise on him, it boils over.And it doesn't help anything that Neji's obviously mentally undressing him from across the table.





	and all things amplified

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kilohertz (katakokk)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/katakokk/gifts).



> A little half-silly, half-serious thing, enjoy!

July in Konoha was an exercise in endurance. Everything was sticky and hot – and hot and sticky. Naturally, the offices didn’t have anything remotely close to air conditioning and Shikamaru was left wishing his day would finish so he could go drown himself in the nice cold river. As it was, however, his day was dragging on and even though he was as close to naked as he could get away with, he was all types of miserable.

 

Didn’t help that – no. Just no.

 

“Nara-sama,” Daisuke, his unofficial secretary appeared in the door. “You have that ANBU meeting.”

 

“Just kill me,” Shikamaru said, burying his head in his hands and then regretting it. Skin touching skin was just another an excuse to sweat.

 

“Then I would be out of a job,” Daisuke said smartly. “I think they’re providing a fan.”

 

“You can have my job,” Shikamaru said, pushing himself out of his seat. “Which room?”

 

“Conference room 10,” he said. “There’s also refreshments.”

 

“Yeah, they always shill out for ANBU.”

 

Daisuke nodded, already back to his papers. “I believe they implemented that policy after half of them left for a terrorist organization,” he said. Shikamaru laughed despite himself.

 

“Don’t join ROOT, we have mochi,” he said.

 

“Oh they don’t care that much – it’s tea.”

 

“Who needs tea in this weather?” Shikamaru wondered. “Whatever – have fun in your now empty office.”

 

“I shall relish the lack of additional body heat.”

* * *

 

 

Conference room 10 was the largest conference room in the tower. When Shikamaru walked in it was to the slightly surreal image of several ANBU captains standing about sipping tea and gossiping. Neji wasn’t there yet, which Shikamaru knew because he could spot Neji in a crowd of Hyūga. A few of them did nod when he entered, but no one spoke to him. Not unusual, ANBU weren’t famously sociable.

 

Probably didn’t help that his job was technically to put them all down with a vengeance should they ever go AWOL.

 

“Afternoon,” Neji said from over his shoulder.

 

“Hey,” Shikamaru said. “I don’t know what I’m doing here.”

 

“I think you’re here to scare us into good behaviour,” Neji said, and Shikamaru looked over his shoulder at him, raising an eyebrow. “You’re a very formidable figure,” he said.

 

“Right. I’m downright imposing.” Shikamaru said.

 

“Joke all you want, I was not being facetious. You’ve killed three ROOT members personally, two whilst at a disadvantage,” Neji said. “It’s not a bad thing, either way. ANBU like dangerous men.”

 

Shikamaru snorted, which did call some attention over to him, but he ignored them. “So ANBU want to sleep with the monsters under their beds?” he asked. Neji’s mouth twitched into a smirk.

 

“Some of us,” he said and Shikamaru laughed despite himself.

 

“That’s one for the books,” he said. “ _So how’d you and your lover meet?_ ‘Oh, he’s turned on by the idea of me stabbing him in the face’.”

 

“Well, maybe not by the idea of being stabbed in the face.” He said. It was so flat it was hard to tell if it was innuendo or not, but Neji’s gaze did dip down to the v of his shirt – not covered in mesh due to this damn heat. They lingered there before coming back up very slowly.

 

The damn heat which hopefully hid his sudden flush. He hated it when Neji flirted at work. It always took him by surprise and put him off balance. Which was probably why Neji did it. Gods his boyfriend was an asshole. It didn’t help that the ANBU were all in uniform – which meant Neji was in skin tight blacks, his austere mask hanging off the side of his belt.

 

“Probably for the best,” he said, managing not to stare at anything in particular too long. Not even his shoulders. “I prefer to stab from behind.”

 

“Pragmatic,” a new voice said. It was a slight woman with crows feet and grey in her blue hair. It took Shikamaru just a moment to put the hair to a name – he’d never seen the face before.

 

“Captain Minemoto,” he said.

 

“Nara-sama,” she said with a perfunctory bow. “I heard rumours of treats?”

 

“Tea,” Shikamaru said. “And tiny sandwiches, it looks like.”

 

“Excellent,” she said and moved off. Neji watched her.

 

“She’s retiring in a month,” he said. “Hopefully this isn’t something that’s going to delay that. She’s been active almost twenty years.”

 

“Impressive,” he said. “D you-”

 

He was cut off by a familiar flare of chakra. A second later the last of the captains stepped in, presumably having caught each other in the halls. Neji nodded a wordless goodbye and went to his spot at the giant table. Shikamaru stayed by the door. He had no clue who else would be here. The ANBU commander, probably, and depending on what the hell this thing was about, possibly Oyone and Ibiki. Gai was unlikely, but possible. At any rate, he had no idea where he was sitting today other than _near the front_.

 

He didn’t have to wonder long. Kakashi swept in with no more fanfare, followed as ever by Shizune, a respectful three feet behind. Directly ahead of her was the Intel head, Oyone out of her usual Intel grey and dressed in a summer yukata, hiked up to her waist, sleeves pinned to her shoulders; and ANBU Commander Matsuda Shiori, as impeccable as ever. In front of them, at Kakashi’s elbow, was Kiba of all people. He had cashed in his own mesh and jacket combo for an unfamiliar white shirt. It has the Konoha symbol on the arm, same as jōnin blues. When he saw Shikamaru look, Kiba tried for his usual cocky grin – but it came off as a bit manic.

 

Shikamaru knew better than to let on he was surprised or otherwise out of the loop, and so just fell into place beside Oyone, his usual spot in this sort of situation. She gave him a wane smile, and this close he could see she was a little wet, as if she’d splashed water on her to cool down. Her eyes lingered on Kiba’s back, however, as if she didn’t know anything either. There was a symbol that was familiar and not – a chrysanthemum in maroon and white.

 

“Lovely weather we’re having,” she muttered as Kakashi took his seat. “Usual seat.”

 

“Thanks,” he said, sitting to Kakashi’s direct right. Kiba sat next to him, giving Shikamaru another brief glance at the design. A crysanthemum? Shikamaru puzzled on it for another moment before the yen dropped.

 

Kakashi was a rat bastard, Hokage or no.

 

Across from him and a few seats down the table Neji caught his eye. People not familiar with Hyūgas had a hard time gauging where they were focusing any one time, but Shikamaru had it down to a science and so could tell his gaze was flickering between Kakashi, Shikamaru himself, and Kiba. Sadly there was no way to inform him of anything so Shikamaru settled for trying not to look disgruntled in any way Neji wold recognize. The very slight tension in Neji’s brow suggested he’d spotted it already and was guessing the source, though not the reason.

 

Shikamaru thought back to Oyone’s almost curious gaze, and realized Kakashi hadn’t told anyone about this.

 

Shikamaru was going to kill him.

 

“Good afternoon,” Kakashi said once everyone was settled. “Thank you for meeting me, even on a day as hot as this. I’m sure you’d prefer to be back in your basement.”

 

There were a few chuckles from the captains. Neji only flashed a very flat smile – and his eyes never left Shikamaru. Despite himself, Shikamaru found himself resisting the urge to fidget. And wondered what the hell Neji was staring at.

 

“We have a lot of orders of business today,” Kakashi continued. “And I want to get you all out of here before the hottest time of day. So, without further ado let’s start.” He gestured to Kiba. “Let me introduce the new head of Konoha’s reinstated police force, Inuzuka Kiba. He will be taking over a few of the duties that have fallen to ANBU over these last years. There are papers that outline the biggest impacts and which teams will undergo them.” Wordlessly Shizune detached from the wall and started to pass the papers out. Neji gave his a cursory look before his eyes snapped back to Shikamaru.

 

His look was, for lack of a better term, smouldering. Very subtly – Neji did not make a lot of obvious facial expressions on the best of days – but Shikamaru had spent a not insignificant portion of his life obsessively disecting every shift in Neji’s features. By now he was old hat it. And so it took all his willpower not to sink into his chair and hide.

 

Shikamaru wondered what the hell was going on his life. His boyfriend was acting strangely, his boss was withholding vital information and it was hotter than any other week on record. He wasn’t necessarily a good person – he was a shinobi after all – but he didn’t deserve this.

 

The papers didn’t come for him – because the impact this was going to have on his job was a goddamn book’s worth. Instead, Shikamaru just tried to keep one ear on the proceedings. There was a bit more about the police – they were just resuming the duties the Uchiha force had covered. The only interesting thing was they intended to open it to civilians. Shikamaru made a note to corner Kiba about that later and see what he had in place for training them. He could ask Kakashi – but like as not he’d be conscripted into making the damn training plan.

 

The rest of the meeting didn’t apply. Or, at least, it wasn’t something he needed to weigh in on. Mostly it was internal issues. Five of the ANBU-only training fields would be shut down for the next week. A reminder that they were unrolling the _mandatory medic per team_ rule in three months and so each Captain needed to submit a name or place a request by next week. Discussion on the possibility of using new material for the masks.

 

Nothing, nothing at all, to do with him.

 

As such he spent the whole thing bouncing between plotting Kakashi’s humiliating death, and trying not to let Neji’s incessant staring affect him. Hopefully people would think the blush that had returned was still because of the warmth. By the time they broke an hour and half later, he was very overwarm, a little horny – damn Neji and his fucking cheekbones – and now very, very pissed off.

 

As such, he didn’t bother asking when he followed Kakashi back up to his office, nor did he wait to see if Kakashi had a meeting planned.

 

“What the _hell_?” he asked the second the door closed behind them. “Why wasn’t I told this was happening – why wasn’t anyone? You obviously didn’t bring it up with the council. Did you bring it up with the civilian council?”

 

“I did, actually,” Kakashi said. “They’ve been agitating for a civilian enforcement group since before the Uchiha were all killed.”

 

“Terrific,” Shikamaru said. “So you did that at least – why wasn’t it brought up with literally anyone else?”

 

“Well I talked to Kiba about it,” Kakashi said. Shikamaru bit back a snarl.

  
“Kakashi...”

 

“Just a reminder I am your boss _and_ your leader,” Kakashi said, “if you wanted to take that into account in how you phrase the rest of what you say.”

 

“So you’re going to write me up for pointing out that compromising my position in front of a group of people who until seven years ago was bristling with _traitors_ , and whom I am charged with keeping clean is a boneheaded move at best?”

 

Silence reigned for a moment. Shikamaru’s fury seemed to ratchet up the longer Kakashi failed to answer him.

 

“I didn’t do it to undermine you,” Kakashi said.

 

Shikamaru scowled. “Well if my poker face was any worse you would have,” Shikamaru said.

 

Kakashi chuckled. “Your poker face has been near perfect since you were fourteen,” he said.

 

“High compliment, from a man who covers most of his face.”

 

“Ouch,” Kakashi said, “you have your mother’s tongue you know.”

 

“Do _not_ bring my family into this,” Shikamaru snapped. Kakashi held up his hands.

 

“I wasn’t,” he said. His eye strayed tellingly to the calendar on his desk. “I wasn’t. I know you’re always a little unreasonable this time of year. Which I accounted for. Besides heat in the office always makes you grumpy.”

 

“This time of year doesn’t make me-”

 

He was interrupted by the door opened. Shikamaru turned to snap at the intruder – which he could do since the only people he didn’t outrank were Kakashi or the same level as himself – and found Neji staring back at him.

 

“What are you doing here?” he demanded.

 

Neji sent him a look that was both amused and unimpressed. “Kakashi told me to come for this time, I assumed it was a mission’s summons.”

 

“Of a sort,” Kakashi said. “You’re being employed to keep your boyfriend from committing high treason.”

 

“Oh, am I being paid?” Neji asked.

 

“In gratitude,” Kakashi said without missing a beat.

 

Shikamaru bit his tongue to keep from telling them not to banter when he was making perfectly valid points, gods all dammit and he did not need Neji here undermining him by being calm in comparison. His scowl must have communicated some of this, because Neji turned slightly toward him.

 

“I usually do not have to say this to you – but relax,” he said. “No one has any idea you didn’t know. Any damage that might have been done was not. They’re all wondering what you were there for.”

 

That – and the somewhat mulish look on Kakashi’s face – mollified him. A little.

 

“What was the point of keeping it secret?” Shikamaru asked.

 

“Honestly, picking Kiba was last minute, and then the civilian council wanted to tell everyone on Friday – and all my advisors insisted we do exactly that. I thought a meeting was better than a memo.”

 

Shikamaru took a deep breath. “Is that all?” he asked.

 

“You followed me in here,” Kakashi said.

 

“Fine,” Shikamaru said, and turned on his heel. Neji let him go, and he heard him follow. Shikamaru didn’t look back, not until Neji caught him outside the elevator.

 

“Home,” Neji said. “Kakashi’s giving you the afternoon and tomorrow off.”

 

“Oh that will look good,” Shikamaru said but let Neji direct them to the stairs.

 

“Don’t be so moody, I’m trying to be helpful,” Neji said.

 

“Excuse me, you spent the last two hours undressing me with your eyes, it was the opposite of helpful.”

 

The smile Neji gave him was half-amused, half-fond and all predator. Somehow.

 

“So you’re angry _and_ horny,” he said, bringing a blush back to Shikamaru’s face. “Now that’s interesting.”

 

“Fuck you,” Shikamaru said.

 

Neji at least had the good grace not to respond to that.

 

* * *

 

 

They did not go home, exactly. Neji broke off from the main path rather abruptly just before they got there, dragging him through the thick woods that dominated the clan lands. Having grown up tromping through them, Shikamaru realized where they were headed. He hadn’t realized Neji knew where it was.

 

“How’d you learn about this?” Shikamaru asked as they exited into a small riverside clearing. The river that cut through most of Konoha travelled through Nara lands, and here it had formed a stream pool of surprisingly clear water. It wasn’t a very popular place amongst the clan – there was a larger one further east that was used to teach kids to swim – but that was a bonus.

 

“I have my ways,” Neji said, settling on the moss that rimmed one part of the pool.

 

Shikamaru shook his head at the vague answer – presumably it was related to being able to see through your own skull. Instead he toed off his shoes and dropped down next to Neji. Quickly he rolled up his pants before letting his feet and lower legs. It was cool and he sighed, dropping back and closing his eyes. A moment later a familiar hand raked through his hair, working his tie free. He didn’t bother arguing, relishing the pressure on his skull.

 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Neji asked finally. Shikamaru took a deep breath.

 

“No,” he admitted. “Can’t it just be it’s hot, and Kakashi was a dick and you’re incredible frustratingly hot?”

 

“I am very attractive,” Neji said, prompting a laugh from Shikamaru. “It’s amazing we haven’t caught the house on fire.”

 

Shikamaru snorted. The hand in his hair stilled briefly.

 

“And what was that noise?”

 

“ _We_ are not that hot.”

 

“Tsk,” Neji said. “Why do you think I was staring at you so much? You’re usually in a turtleneck _and_ mesh, seeing your collar bones in public was practically nudity.” He tugged Shikamaru’s hair until he opened his eyes. “And you’re a very attractive man. It’s inconvenient, really. If this heat continues people are going to start realizing what I’ve stolen right from under their nose.”

 

By the time Neji stopped talking, Shikamaru was wide eyed and tomato red. It was all he could do not to gape up at him. Especially when Neji’s expression softened.

 

“You-” Shikamaru’s words failed him. “Thanks.”

 

Neji snorted. “Oh the eloquence from my genius,” he said, pressing a kiss to Shikamaru’s forehead.

 

“You can be the talker,” Shikamaru said, sitting up a little so he could twist and press a kiss to Neji’s mouth. Though it was an awkward angle, it was comforting and he let Neji pull him further up, just as Neji let hi wrap his arms around his neck and anchor him.

 

“No one would accuse me of that position,” Neji said when they pulled apart.

 

“So we’ll be hot and surprising. Power couple.”

 

Neji laughed, a sound that went right down to Shikamaru’s toes in a tingle of pleasure. And just when he’d cooled down, too.

**Author's Note:**

> for a prompt: ShikaNeji, heat wave (do with that what you will ;) ) Which is why we got it threefold - literally and twice figuratively. It was sort of fun to write Shikamaru losing his temper - he lets loose so rarely!
> 
> You're all welcome to imagine he and Neji have really _great_ sex shortly after this ends ;)


End file.
